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ORATION, 



DELIVERED 



\T THE REQUEST OF THE SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF 
IN COMMEMORATION 



*inniversary of J.meincan Independence. 

/ 
BY FRANKLIN DEXTER. 




8C 



BOSTON : 

PVBLISHED VS. JOSEPH T. BUCEINCHABI, 
SO. 17, COBNHILL. 






VOTE OF THE TOWN. 



AT a meeting of the freeiiolders and other inhabitants of the town 
of Boston, assembled at Faneuil-Hail, on Monda}' the 5th day of July, 
A. D. 1819, 9 o'clock, A. M. and then adjourned to the Old South 
Church — 

Voted, — That the Selectmen be, and hereby are appointed a com- 
mittee to wait on FRA^KLIN Dexter, Esq. in the name of the town, 
and thank him for the elegant and spirited Oration this day delivered 
by him at the request of the town, upon the Anniversary of American 
Independence, in which were considered the feelings, manners and 
principles, which produced the great national event, and the important 
and happy effects, general and domestic, which have already, or will 
forever, flow from that auspicious epoch ; and to request of him a co|)y 
for the press. A test, THOMAS CLARK, Town Clerk. 



ORATION. 



If we meet this day from feeling aud not from 
habit; and if we would devote it to better purposes 
than ostentation, we shall find more appropriate 
modes of celebrating it than merely triumphing in 
our Independence, or anticipating our future gran 
deur. Indeed it is time that we had done with 
much exultation : it suits neither our condition nor 
our character. We are not emancipated slaves, 
but the sons of freemen ; and we should celebrate 
the establishment of our rights as we should enjoy 
them — with sobriety and dignity. Intemperate 
joy would seem like a reproach on our fathers. 
We may be allowed to feel proud of the spirit that 
produced the revolution ; and we can hardly be 
extravagant in our admiration of it — it is the most 
glorious vinilication of liberty on record. But our 
liberties were not won ))y it ; for they had never 
been lost — ^it was but a struggle to preserve them 



in which we were compelled to take on us the digni- 
ty and responsibility of an independent nation. 
And we may rejoice that we are so ; but if we 
realize the importance of the trusty it will be with a 
joy chastened at least by solicitude. 

And even if our Independence had been tlie 
commencement of our liberty, still we liave had it 
long enough to feel it calmly^ as an inheritance and 
a natural right. Nor will exulting in it help us to 
preserve it : we may more safely trust for that to 
our common habits and every-day feelings, than to 
occasional bursts of national vanity. There h 
even danger that by the unrestraiued indulgence of 
it, Ave shall rather lose than gain in our practical 
attaclimcnt to liberty : we may acquire a habit of 
calling ourselves free which shall at last stand for 
the reality of freedom ; and valuing ourselves too 
mucli on wliat our fathers won with so arduous a 
struggle, we may forget that our task of preserving- 
it is hardly less difficult. 

And if it be our destiny to go on increasing as 
we have done, we shall not hasten our march by 
gazing on its future glories. Powerful — irresisti- 
ble, natural causes are at work to make us a great 
people, and we shall have done our part, and all 
we can do, if we take care to plant firmly our own 
footsteps — if we endeavour to understand rightly 
and value soberly our higli and peculiar privileges., 



to strcngtlicii our old institutions and preserve our 
old principles. Our growth will be rapid enougli ; 
let it ratJier l)e our care to mako it sound than 
sudden. 

There is no plainer truth than that no system of 
society can be supported without a knowledge of 
the principles on which it is founded. Aud these 
principles are rarely abstract maxims of policy 
and government. Civil society is too complicated 
a machine, made up of too many independent 
springs to be governed and preserved by general 
laws. The wisest constitution that ever was fram- 
ed would fail of its elfect, if it were not adapted to 
the character of the people — if it had not grown 
out of their habits and followed rather than at- 
tempted to lead them. Good government never 
sprung but from good principles. And tJiey who 
are in possession of it, if they would preserve it. 
must take care to conform to the character of its 
founders. If you would secure to yourselves, and 
transmit to your children, the free and happy in- 
stitutions of your ancestors, you must study their 
liistory, and be familiar with their ])rinciples. Let 
this day never pass without a recurrence to them 
— let no event of the present or anticipation of the 
future wholly excludethem fromyourrememl)raiice. 
It is true that notiiing which touches your interes( 
as a people is foreign from the celebration of tha 



anniversary of your Independence—a day when 
you are to examine the state of your liberties, as 
well as to rejoice in their esta,blishment ; and no 
consideration sliould turn you aside from doing tliis 
freely and boldly. "But let it always be done with 
reference to the principles to which you owe tliem; 
let them be the standard by which you are to com- 
pare and correct your opinions and conduct ; and 
then only may you safely congratulate yourselves;, 
when yon find they have not been deserted. 

The subjects I am directed to consider are the 
feelings, manners and jmnciples that led to our 
revolution ; and I cannot characterise them better 
than by saying they Avcre those of freemen. The 
Colonists became independent because they had 
always been free ; for it is only by the long en- 
joyment of liberty that men could be formed for a 
contest so difficult and dangerous. The love of 
liberty was their ruling passion ; and though they 
disclaimed any wish to be independent until they 
solemnly declared themselves so^, they were al- 
ways actuated by a spirit that could not leave them 
long dependent on a foreign pov/er. It was a clear 
understanding of the princi])les of civil liberty, and 
an ardent attacliment to it, that were the sole and 
consistent causes of the revolution. Not the mere 
impatience of oppression, that sometimes wakes 
even a degraded people to resistance, to aveng** 



ilieir wrongs, rather than to assert their rights ; 
which groans and struggles in confinement, till 
there is no longer any thing to he lost — and then 
hreaks out in violence and uproar, not to' change 
the government, I)ut to annihilate it ; not to redress 
the evils. -of society, but to sweep away society it- 
self. We have seen such a revolution, and we 
may be proud tJ^at ours had nothing in common 
with it. We have seen a great nation shaken to 
its foundations, and bursting like a volcano only 
to shower down destruction on itself; leaving its 
colossal form dark, bare and blasted, with no gran- 
deur but its terrors. Such was not our revolution ; 
but like the fire in our own forests, not scattered 
by the hand of accident or fury, but deliberately 
applied to the root of the growth of ages, which 
tottered and fell before it, only that from its ashes 
might rise a new creation, where all was green and 
fair and flourishing. The world has learned by 
these experiments that civil liberty is not a mush- 
room, that grows up in a night from the fallen and 
rotten trunk of despotism, but a hardy plant that 
strikes deep, in a sound soil, and slowly gathers 
strength with years, till oppression withers in its 
shadow. Our present situation is a living proof 
of the difference of the two events. Liberty never 
yet was the work of an outraged and incensed popu- 
lace ; as well might a whirlwind plant a paradise. 



8 

Our levolutioii was not the result of siidi des- 
perate feelings ; its authors were not driven to it^ 
but chose it voluntarily as the least of evils, where 
there w as still a choice. They felt indeed, that 
ihey were deeply injured ; for they asked only the 
rights of Englishmen, and those were denied 
them ; but they were not yet m holly oppressed ; 
they had still much i.o lose. They did not turn 
under the actual pressure and smart of injustice, 
for they had borne much heavier evils than tliat 
which was the immediate cause of their resistance. 
But they saw that their liberties were formally and 
deliberately invaded ; tliat parliament Avas estab- 
lishing principles of oppression, that would fall 
heavy in practice on their children ; and they felt 
they had no right to endure it. It was not a sud- 
den popular discontent, for their course was gradu- 
al, calm and temperate. They were patient under 
suJSering, wliile it was possible that the evil might 
be accidental and temporary ; but when they found 
they must resist, they did not wait to be tram- 
pled on. 

Nor was it a Avild, ambitious Avisli of Indepen- 
dence without re^rard to its necessity. We could 
not wonder if such a feeling had taken strong hold 
of a few adventurous exiles, thrown on a ncAV 
world, whose rochy grandeur and forest wildness 
seemed the natural abode of liberty, and where 



9 

there were none to dispute their possession. If 
they had had a particle of the selfishness of ambi- 
tion, what dreams of independence and asjgran- 
dizement might they not have indulged ! " The 
world was all before them where to choose"— and 
they chose to sit down quietly under the shadow 
of their old country and constitution — dependent 
on that government which had driven them from 
their homes. Their whole character and his- 
tory contradict the supposition that they ever as- 
pired to independence, till they found they could 
not be free without it. And during the long strug- 
gle for liberty that preceded the declaration of in- 
dependence, though perhaps a few leading spirits 
foresaw the necessity of the measure, and were 
willing to meet it, it ne\er was the wish of the 
people. Their repeated declarations of loyalty 
were as sincere as the complaints with which they 
were mingled. They had had opportunities 
enough of throwing off their allegiance if they had 
wished it ; but they were faithful to England 
through both her revolutions ; they were equally 
loyal to Charles and the Commonwealth — to James 
and to William. Every thing shows that they 
separated from England, not because they were 
strong enough to resist her, but because she ex- 
cluded them from the privileges of union. Un- 
doubtedly there is a time when the strength of a 
2 



10 

distant colony gives it a right to independence^ be- 
cause the purposes of society and government are 
best promoted by it ; and if our revohition had 
not been precipitated by the violent measures of 
the English government^, we should probably have 
separated before now ; peaceably, if England un- 
derstood her own interest, or forcibly in tlie exer- 
cise of the right to independence we had gained 
with our strength. But that natural period of sep- 
aration had not arrived when the colonies were 
compelled to take their liberties into their own 
hands ; for if their strength had been sufficient 
without the assistance of a foreign ally, they were 
still too little united to justify the experiment while 
they enjoyed the protection of the English consti- 
tution. But when that failed them, they would 
not deliberate whether they had strength and union 
enough to resist, or whether they should wait till 
tliey had acquired them ; for a few years of op- 
pression would have extinguished in the people the 
spirit that alone could carry them through a revo- 
lution ; that enlightened spirit of liberty that per- 
vaded their feelings, manners and institutions, aud 
produced a character even more remarkable than 
their destiny. 

For when we speak with admiration of our re- 
volution, we do not mean that it is wonderful that 
a few scattered colonies, determined to be independ- 



11 

eiit — though with no bond of union but tiieir com- 
mon wrongs, and no resources but the persever- 
ance and patriotism of individuals, inhabiting a 
country of vast extent, with a wilderness of refuge 
behind them, assisted too by a foreign force — 
should have succeeded in resisting any attempt of 
a distant power to subdue them. The physical 
force of their enemy must liave been vastly supe- 
rior to overcome the adi%ntages of their situation. 
Under such circumstances, if the colonists perse- 
vered in the struggle, there could be little doubt of 
the event ; and they did persevere Avith a heroism 
worthy of their cause. But what we admire in 
their history is the character of a people w ho de- 
liberately hazarded their fortunes, families and 
lives in opposition to an oppression, which the 
policy of the government had reduced to a mere 
speculative principle, hardly felt in practice : who 
after an arduous contest of seven years, in which 
the principles for which it vvas commenced were 
never forgotten ; wliich had enlisted almost every 
inhabitant as a soldier, and turned exery exertion 
from its accustomed channel to the practice of arms, 
and left them independent states and almost in- 
dependent individuals — returned immediately to 
peaceful industry, and calmly framed a nsv/ gov- 
ernment of which we may say at least, that the 
world has seen none wiser or more successful. 



12 

This is what could not have arisen from a series 
of fortunate accidents ; it was the consistent oper- 
ation of one cause ; the necessary result of tiieir 
feelings^ manners and principles. 

To display these feelings^ manners and principles 
as I could wish, I would go back two hundred 
years, and follow our forefathers through all their 
history, from their first emigration to the time of 
our independence. Yot should see them in Eng- 
land, in Holland, and in America — I w ould first 
shew you that little band of zealous, persecuted 
puritans, oppressed by civil and ecclesiastical pow- 
er at home — flying from place to place, giving up 
every thing but their principles, and persevering 
through all till tliey were compelled to leave their 
country in search of the liberty she would no longer 
afford them. I would show you this germ of a 
future nation assembling for emigration, not under 
an adventurer or acliieftain, bntunder the guidance 
of a liumble minister of the gospel ; j)ilgrims in a 
strange land ; seeking among a foreign but friendly 
people the peace they could not find at home. 
Yon should see them animated by no spirit of 
fanaticism or proselytizing, settle down in order 
and industry, gaining the love and esteem of their 
new countrymen, and happy in the exercise of 
their duties aad the freedom of tlieir consciences. 
And here, having obtained the liberty they sought. 



13 

ilieir history would seem to end. But for their 
wonderful perseverance and principle we could fol- 
low them no further — they would in a few years 
have mingled with those who gave them arefuge,and 
left no traces of their existence hut in the virtues 
they had given in exchange. But such a spirit 
was not permitted to be so extinguished ! it was 
reserved for higher purposes than merely ame- 
liorating the character of a people who could but 
faintly partake of it. It was reserved to spread 
undiluted over a new world, and to be transmitted 
pure to millions of posterity. 

I would siiow you this same people after twelve 
years of peace and freedom ; when they had gained 
a new home and new friends — when they had 
taken deep root in the soil to which they had been 
transplanted — alarmed now for those who were to 
come after them, as they had been before for them- 
selves ; finding that what seemed at first like the 
promised land was rife with evil and peril — that 
they could not trust those who had sheltered them 
with the morals of their children, and again giving 
up all for conscience' sake, flying from contamina- 
tion as they had fled before from oppression. Theirs 
was no enthusiasm stirred up by persecution ; their 
principles did not depend on opposition for their 
strength and slumber in security : they were as 
active and vigilant in prosperity as they had been 



14. 

in adversity. The rest that would have enervated 
common spirits, only prepared them for a new and 
more heroic sacrifice. They were now called to 
prove that they valued their principles more than 
all else — for by them they were to ])e driven from 
civilized society — they had before left their homes 
and all that had been dear to them from childhood, 
but then they were flying from oppression to peace; 
now they were to quit those who had kindly re- 
ceived and protected them ; they were to be thrown 
abroad on the Avorld without a place of rest ; seek- 
ing only for some spot, no matter how wild, or 
distant, where they could live in freedom, and 
transmit their principles and example to their 
childi'en. 

I would show you these fugitives — and I am 
sure it was a proud moment, not to be paralleled 
in history — returning after so long an absence to 
their own country; not weary of exile, to go again 
to their homes and friends, but to prepare for a- 
nother and a final departure. I would show you 
them standing on their native shore, with their 
backs to all they had loved — neither won from 
their purpose by the returning tenderness of early 
associations and the renewal of old friendships, nor 
deterred by the dangers of the patli before them — 
lookiftg with an anxious but steady eye, over the 
dark waters that were to bear them to a world, of 



15 

which they knew nothing even by report but that 
it was savage and inhospitable. You should see 
them on the ocean, turning to give a last look to 
their homes, a last farewell to their country ; al- 
ready lessening in distance, and disappearing. And 
is this all ? was nothing left of such heroic virtues 
but their example ? did they spring up in trouble ; 
resist corruption ; endure persecution, poverty and 
exile only to be lost in the wilderness ? As well 
might you fear the sun that was hastening with 
them to the west would be quenched in its waters, 
as that such feelings and principles could perish. 

Their history does not end here ; I would fol- 
low them — but that the time would fail me — 
through all their difficulties, dangers, sufferings, 
contests and triumphs, till they became a gTeat and 
independent people. And it is thus you must 
learn their character. If you would be faithful to 
the trust they have reposed in you, you must gath- 
er their principles from their whole history ; and 
you will find them displaying throughout a firm- 
ness, integrity, perseverance and courage that 
have never marked the progress of any other 
people. 

But these things are not to be learned merely as 
subjects of curiosity, or panegyric. We should 
indeed be ungrateful to those to whom we owe our 
ludependeuce if we could forget their virtues ; but 



16 

"wc owe them a much higher duty than remem- 
brance or admiration. They have transmitted to 
us the most precious of all possessions — liberty 
and good government, and an example for the pre- 
servation of both ; and if we would lionour tiie dead^ 
and be grateful to the living — tiie few w ho are yet 
looking to us with anxiety for the success of their 
toils and suiferhigs-^we must be mindful of the 
trust. Never was so much committed to any peo- 
ple. From the nature of our government, and the 
situation of tlie country, every act of ours is deeply 
important. Our institutions are young and flexi- 
ble, and we must watch and mould them with pe- 
culiar care, till they are hardened by age. We 
have yet no venerable prejudices to encounter ; we 
are not fettered by a system of laws whose antiqui- 
ty has given them an authority over reason. We 
have the vigour and ductility of youth with the 
experience of ages ; and we shall fail miserably in 
our duties if we do not improve on all that has 
gone before us. All was not a(;complished when 
our Independence was acknowledged and our gov- 
ernment established. What was suificient for us 
then will not be sufficient always ; oui* country is 
undergoing gi*eat and rapid changes, and its institu- 
tions must change to meet them ; to preserve what 
your ancestors left you, their example is guide 
enough ; but when you must add or diminish, you 



IT 

will need all their wisdom and virtue to direct 
you. 

Nor is it from the nature of the trust alone that 
you are deeply responsible : you are still more so 
from the number of those who are to profit or suf- 
fer by your care of it. You are to provide not for 
those only who are to fill your places, but for a 
continually increasing multitude^ whose progress 
imagination can hardly bound. 

You must imitate then the manners of your an- 
cestors. You cannot, and indeed ought not to be 
as simple, frugal and severe as they were ; they 
had much to accomplish with little means, and 
could spare nothing from strength for ornament. 
They were laying the foundation of a great system 
and their only care was to make it broad, deep and 
strong ; but it was a foundation for all the elegan- 
cies as well as the uses of society, and it is now 
your part to add them. Luxury will come with 
wealth, but it is for you to choose whether it shall 
be that private luxury, which is the peculiar bane 
of a popular government, or that public magnifi- 
cence that was the strength and glory of the old 
republics. Among the ruins of the greatest of fall- 
en nations, nothing strikes the imagination so 
forcibly as the immense disparity of her public and 
private establishments. All that belonged to indi 
viduals was swept away iu the storm that passed 
3 



18 

over her, or preserved only where it was buried 
for the instruction of posterity ; while her temples, 
her courts of justice .and halls of legislation tower- 
ing over nameless heaps of decay, still seem built 
for eternity. If such desolation should come over 
our cities, would the ruins that would attract the 
eye of the traveller tell of the greatness of the 
country, or the wealth of individuals ? What 
would remain when our habitations were crumbled 
into dust to display our public spirit and national 
grandeur ? I fear there would be little history in 
our ruins. Are we doing as much in proportion 
for the public as for ourselves ? Wbile our artifi- 
cial wants and expenses have been iucreasing ten 
fold, have our public institutions been equally pro- 
moted? While we arc building palaces, have 
Justice, Legislation and Religion their temples of 
proportionate splendor — are our libraries, schools 
and colleges what iliey ought to be ? Have we 
provided means of education for a posterity vastly 
more numerous «nnd relliicd than we are? You 
need not fear being extravagant in these things — 
there are enough coming after you who will need 
thera all. 

This providential care of posterity was one of 
the distinguishing jf^e//«^s of your ancestors, and 
you must cherish it, with their love of country and 
ardent attacliment to liherty. 



19 

But above all, you must cling to their principles 
*— their justice, moderation and unconquerable per- 
severance in the right — ^their disregard of present 
evil and anxious provision for the future. Like 
them you must resist encroachments on your rights 
in their principles, not in their consequences — and 
remember that your liberty has received one blow 
when a citizen, however powerful or popular, has 
violated the constitution with impunity — and your 
honor imbibed a deep stain when the rights 
of humanity are forgotten in your strength. But 
jnake the principles of your ancestors your guides, 
and your freedom is unspotted and eternal; it 
cannot perish while there is an arm to defend it or 
a wilderness to shelter it. 



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HECKMAN IXI 

BINDERY INC. |§| 

#APR 89 
N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 






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